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I have decided to accept Lisa Rivero’s challenge to write 30 blog posts for the month of September. I intend to try to add 10 posts to each of my 3 blogs during the month of September. Sprite’s Site will feature posts about posts!

The signpost is one of the landmarks on Sprite’s Site.

The Sprite’s Site Signpost is the marker at the crossroads in the centre of the Feetspeak: 2E Shoes Quest Map.
The Quest Map is a mind map which provides an overview of the Feetspeak: 2eshoes program

In Sprite’s mind the roads are called Shoes Road and DMGT Road.
Shoes Road leads to Edward De Bono’s 6 Action Shoes and DMGT Road leads to Prof Francoys Gagne’s Model of the development from natural ability to fully developed talent.
She calls the other end of DMGT Road Fund Road because that was where she had to go to find out whether she would be eligible for any funding, special considerations or assistance.
The other end of Shoes Rd is what Sprite calls Plan Rd; because it was there that strategies for building an education plan for her could be found. Sprite always wonders whether DMGT Road and Plan Road meet each other somewhere behind the distant hills.
It could be reasonably extrapolated that if the plans made on Plan Road were suitable and were pursued to their conclusion that Plan Road and DMGT Road would indeed meet up.

Retweet was trying to make the visit a positive experience by declaring that as part of their NEST Ed activities for the week they would be researching their family tree as Great Aunt Hashtag was very knowledgeable about Tweet’s family history.
“I am glad to see you are doing that.” said Great Aunt Hashtag.
“In MY day we knew how to respect our ancestors and relatives!”

Retweet already knew that there were several illustrious ancestors who were Leaders of the Great Migrations in Tweet’s family tree. She attributed the giftedness of her tweetlets to the genes they had inherited from Tweet’s family. However she acknowledged that there were many brilliant musicians, poets and visionaries on her side of the family tree.
And of course she had discussed the nature versus nurture issue with the Psych-Owl-Ogist on several occasions. He had shown her a diagram of Professor Francoys Gagne’s DMGT model and pointed to the Environmental Catalysts section to demonstrate how the influence of the nest environment played its part in the development of the Tweetlets innate giftedness into fully developed talent.https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/the-psych-owl-ogist-2/

Tweet had also told Retweet about an old uncle who was a brilliant thinker and was said to be rather peculiar. Retweet was really keen to know more about him.

“Oh he was a bad egg, a bad egg!” said Great Aunt Hashtag “He was the black sheep of the family!”

Tweetelle tugged at Retweet’s wingtip “You told us sheep and dogs do not come out of eggs” she whispered
“The black sheep of the family is just a saying. We will talk about it later.” Retweet whispered back.

“It is a good thing you can choose your friends because you cannot choose your relations” Retweet said.
She was trying to smooth the conversation but she was also remembering some of the awkward moments when Great Aunt Hashtag had caused upset to the tweetlets during her visits.
Relationships can become quite strained when the characteristics of giftedness are not understood.https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/when-extended-family-dont-get-giftedness/

“Talking about friends – do you still keep in touch with Trending and her family?” asked Great Aunt Hashtag.
“No. Trending and I have grown apart over the years and her tweetlets did not have any interests in common with my tweetlets.” Retweet replied.

Retweet had found that her tweetlets preferred the company of older tweetlets or adult Twitter birds. Finding same age friends had proved quite a challenge. She was glad that the tweetlets had found some like minded peers of all ages at the Bower Holiday Program.

“Is the Peculiar Bad Egg Bird my Uncle?” asked Tweetil.

“Let’s work it out” said Great Aunt Hashtag “If I am your great aunt and he was my third cousin once removed what relationship is he to you?

“I thought ‘In a Relationship’ was a polite way of saying the naughty word” said Tweetelle. “The baby sitter said she was In a Relationship and….”

Retweet went very pink in the face. “I think we may have to revisit the Birds and the Bees talk later” she said.

This post is part of the Hoagiesgifted September Blog hop. Gifted, How?
The different faces of giftedness. The creative gifted, the math gifted, the chess kid, the 2e child, the introvert, etc. All gifted kids (and adults) don’t all look alike! What does the face of giftedness look like to you?
Links to all the posts in the blog hop can be found at www.hoagiesgifted.org/blog_hop_gifted_how.htm

Sensual Dabrowski scratched his head and expressed the opinion that there would not be enough time to stage special events for the Best Australian Blogs competition.
Not only did Sprite have specialist appointments to attend but she had also committed them to going on the next Gifted Homeschoolers Forum blog hop.

Imaginational Dabrowski suggested a solution.

“This year the 2014 theme can be ‘Along for the Ride’. Sprite can invite her visitors to come along with her as she goes about her regular activities.”

“The Voting Button will arrive soon but before then Sprite needs to create campaign posters, pose for a portrait and spruce up the blog” said the Origami Secretary Bird.

This is a blog entry which I wrote in July 2013 and posted in other places. I am playing catch up and posting it here now.

“It is all about equity and equal access to excellent education. We treat all the students as gifted. A rising tide raises all ships you know” Sprite’s teacher told me. “There have been system wide reforms and changes in the philosophy of education. Every class in every school in the system is now providing gifted education.”

I had gone in to Sprite’s classroom hoping to make an appointment for a follow up meeting with Sprite’s teacher to discuss her progress. I found that all students now had access to a pile of one size fits all paper shoe covers and that these had replaced the De Bono 6 Action shoes gifted education program planning.

“So if every class in every school in the system is offering a gifted education program does that mean that every teacher in every class in every school has been given specialist training in teaching gifted and special needs students?” I asked

“No it means every school receives a bulk order of these one size fits all shoe covers and the teachers are required to attend a one hour long PD session relating to how to apply them in their regular classes” she replied.

Later, at home, Sprite and I discussed the shoe covers with Columbus Cheetah and the Dabrowski Dogs.

“Maybe it means that every student in every class in every school in the system will get an Individual Education Plan. That would be the perfect way to cover it!” said the idealistic Imaginational.

“No, that would be De Bono’s Brown Brogues Do- what- is- most- sensible planning and these covers are blue” said Intellectual.

“I remember that I didn’t like the blue formal shoes programs because they seemed too rigid and did not allow for outside the box thinking” said Imaginational.

“When you think about it, these covers are also an attempt to fit everyone into the same mould” said Intellectual “What type of shoes do you wear under them?”

“We all usually wear Sparkle Toes sandals under the cover shoes” said Sprite.

“They are the shoes that represent the appearance of having a gifted education or special education program when not really having any substantial program in place” said Emotional “They are so pretty and look as if they would be so good and so much fun. It is a real pity they are not really very useful!”

“I don’t think it would be easy to run fast in sandals;’’ said Columbus Cheetah “especially if they do not have a strap around the heel. I don’t know how useful they would be for travelling on Gagne’s DMGT Road from innate giftedness to fully developed talent.”

“The cover on my right foot keeps on tearing because the sandal rubs a hole in it when I try to go faster than the class” said Sprite “And the teacher just sighs and says ‘Get yourself another cover from the pile Sprite- you know what to do’ So now I am getting in trouble each time I tear one and being made to feel that I use more than my fair share of the covers.”

“See!” said Intellectual “They can’t even cover their pretence of having a gifted program!”

“But what about your left foot? How does it feel?” asked Sensual

“I just really hurts!” said Sprite “because I cannot get the pair to the right foot Sparkle Toes sandal on that foot and they won’t even let me try to put a larger one on. We are only allowed one pair of Sparkle Toes sandals each. So I just have to wear the shoe cover by itself on my left foot.”

“It is no wonder so many 2E students drop out!” said Psycho Motor Dabrowski.

Intellectual Dabrowski growled

“These shoe covers appear to be an economic method of countering elitist arguments by giving a show of providing gifted education programs to all students. But treating all students as gifted without making any specific provisions for them is almost as little help as not having any program at all!”

In line with his New Year resolution, that in 2014 he will increase his efforts to bust the myths surrounding giftedness and advocate for acceleration and ability grouping opportunities for gifted students, and in preparation for a webinar and Global GT chat on Twitter for the next two weeks, Columbus Cheetah is updating his myth busting presentations.

Columbus Cheetah’s discussion of the myths surrounding giftedness are based in his own brand of cheetah logic and the wonderful analogy of the cheetah to the gifted person given in Stephanie Tolan’s wonderful article ‘Is it a Cheetah?’http://www.stephanietolan.com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm

Related to the Nature vs Nurture debate about the origins of giftedness we find the myth that giftedness can be created in any person by training, practice, hard work and attitude.

When linked to the myth “Gifted students have pushy parents” it is worded as

Columbus has already dealt with this myth in a reply to Seth Godin’s assertion that

Actually, it goes the other way
Wouldn’t it be great to be gifted? In fact…
It turns out that choices lead to habits.
Habits become talents.
Talents are labeled gifts.
You’re not born this way, you get this way.

Using Cheetah logic Columbus explains that cheetahs are perfectly designed by nature to run fast. They have the long legs, flexible arched spine and enlarged chest, nostrils and lungs.
While coaching and training members of other species to run fast may improve their performance it will not alter their basic anatomy and physiology.

Prof Francoys Gagne’s DMGT model discusses how various catalysts influence the development of innate giftedness into fully developed talent.
But the talents are being developed from already existing innate giftedness.

Making good choices, developing good habits, practice and persistence are great character attributes for mastering a talent and should be encouraged but they will not create giftedness.

But as we saw in Myth 2 all are NOT gifted and in Myth 3 giftedness is not synonymous with achievement. As Columbus Cheetah says “All cheetahs are animals but very few animals are cheetahs!”

Little Bully Black Dog was back chanting “Sprite is a GUA! Sprite is a GUA! GUA, GUA, GUA, GUA!”

“I AM NOT!” said Sprite. “Don’t be mean! What is a GUA anyway?”

The Dabrowski Dogs gathered round to defend Sprite – all except Psycho Motor who was chasing the bouncing Venn diagram which Little Bully Black Dog had been playing with previously.

“It means Gifted Under Achiever” said Intellectual

“It means she is smart enough to do better if she tried harder” said Little Bully Black Dog.

“But I always DO try hard” said Sprite.

“I know you do!” said Emotional “You are a 2E or GLD student (gifted with a learning disability or difference) and that makes it harder for you to achieve your full potential. But Jo is advocating for your needs to be met and we are all here supporting you. We will all try to make sure that you have the best possible opportunities and do not become an Under Achiever”

“And Under Achieving is not always about how hard a student tries” added Intellectual. “There are many reasons for underachievement.”

Intellectual called to Psycho Motor to bring the Venn diagram.

In the whole student population there are some gifted students, some students with learning difficulties and many students who are underachieving for a whole variety of reasons.

Some of the gifted students also have learning difficulties and many of the gifted and many of those with learning difficulties are underachieving. And some are unfortunate enough to be in that centre group who are gifted with learning difficulties and are underachieving.

The topic of Gifted Under Achievers was discussed on Twitter #gtchat recently.

“What happens if you fall into that white section in the centre? Where does it lead?” asked Sprite

“Underachievement can prevent students from reaching their destination on Gagne’s DMGT road from innate ability to fully developed talent” said Intellectual

“So,” said Imaginational “teachers, parents, psychologists, education consultants and therapists need to support and advocate for gifted, 2E and LD students in order to build a guard rail to try to prevent them falling into the Underachieving area.